SHARE

Bengaluru-based small finance bank licensee Janalakshmi Financial Services Ltd has appointed seasoned banker Ajay Kanwal as its chief executive officer. VS Radhakrishnan, the current CEO, will move into a new role as the company’s vice-chairman.

“Ajay is a senior banker with substantial experience in retail banking, especially in digital and mass-market banking. This will help as we transition to a small finance bank, and bring the full suite of banking offerings to our retail and enterprise customers,” said Ramesh Ramanathan, founder and chairman of Janalakshmi Financial, in a statement.

The development comes within a month of Kanwal joining private equity firm TPG as a senior advisor.

In November 2016, the 27-year-old banking industry veteran had resigned from Standard Chartered Bank, after failing to disclose certain details of his personal investments. The bank had said that though it was a transgression, there was no legal or regulatory breach.

At Standard Chartered, Kanwal had held various roles, including that of the regional CEO, Asean and South Asia, regional CEO of Northeast Asia, and CEO of Taiwan. He used to also head the bank’s consumer banking vertical for Southeast Asia.

Chawla had resigned as the CEO of the food and fast-moving consumer goods arm of the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, barely six months after he took over the role as part of a wider management rejig at the retail group. His last working day will be 31 July, the company said in a stock-exchange filing last week.

Chawla had joined the Future Group in January 2009 as the CEO for Future Group’s private brands business. He had previously worked at Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail Ltd, beverage giant Coca-Cola and Asian Paints.

Chawla’s appointment comes at a time when the company is looking to scale up its presence across India. Walmart India had earlier announced its plans to set up 50 new outlets by 2019, and currently owns and operates 21 cash-and-carry wholesale format stores.